We wanted to get an early start today in order to beat the heat, but we weren’t in any big rush when we got up. Our cabin has a kitchenette. We had gone to the grocery store for some milk and a box of Raisin Bran, which is sold here as Sultana Bran. I had poured myself a bowl and took it to the front porch of our cabin to eat breakfast in the very pleasant morning air.
I was chomping away when suddenly, I had company. My uninvited guest was hanging off the front of the roof, and looking at me and my breakfast.
That’s a sulphur-crested cockatoo, and they’re as common in these parts as starlings, blackbirds and sparrows are where you live. This one was just a few feet away, which is as close as it got to me and my Sultana Bran.
After breakfast, we drove up to our first hike, McKenzie Falls. It took maybe a half-hour to get to the car park. Before starting out, Roslyn stopped in at the restroom near the trail head. There was some minor commotion coming from the ladies room, on account of this:
To say Roslyn doesn’t like spiders is a bit of an understatement, so props to her for getting this picture!
The hike to McKenzie Falls involves going down about 400 very steep and deep stairs. The stairs take you right to the base of the falls.
Of course, once you’re at the bottom, you have to get back to the top. Those 400 steep and deep steps are no bargain. The app on Roslyn’s phone that counts steps and things like that told us after we got to the top and we had climbed 15 flights of stairs. The sun was up now,the temperature had climbed to the low 90’s.
Still, your intrepid explorers had the wherewithal to take on another of the park’s most popular hikes, to a spot called The Balconies. We made the short drive to the parking area, and then the one kilometer walk on level ground to an interesting rock formation.
Those fellows you see at the edge of The Balconies aren’t supposed to be there. They climbed a fence and walked through brush to get there. If a rock broke off or one of them slipped, it would have taken a helicopter and some rappellers to recover the body. But, hey, why not?
When we got back to the car, the digital readout on the dashboard informed us it was 37 degrees. While I was doing the Celsius-to-Fahrenheit conversion in my head, Roslyn said, “37C is 98.6! I remember that from nursing school!” We drove back into Halls Gap, and had lunch and ice cream. Then back to the cabin for rest.
A few hours later, Roslyn looked out or front door to see
A mom and her joey. Pretty darn cute. We had dinner at a restaurant a short drive from here. We had a window table, with a view of a field. In the field were maybe 100 kangaroos, munching on grass, drinking from a stream, hopping around as kangaroos do. Then a large flock on cockatoos flew across the sky, on their way to roost for the night. Toto, we are not in Kansas.
I’m sorry to be leaving the Grampians so soon. But that’s been true of most of the places we’ve visited so far. Tomorrow is a travel day; we make the six-hour drive to Adelaide. Maybe we’ll be able to find a radio station here carrying the Super Bowl (it starts at 10:30 a.m. local time). Maybe not.